my digitized life // john hwang » Hobbies

Indefinite hiatus.

john — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:19:46 +0000

This site is taking an indefinite hiatus. I know… I know… shocker after over a year without an update right?

Worst Loss of the Season.

john — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:54:12 +0000

First, congratulations to LSU and their fans for the win. As a Tech fan, it was hard to watch the Chick-Fil-A Bowl but certainly, I won’t shy away from admitting that Georgia Tech was dismantled in all aspects of the game… offense, defense, and even special teams. I was severely disappointed in the way our defense played last night; they simply looked unprepared to play the game of football. I could easily blame the offense for being unproductive but hopefully our defensive unit would be the first ones to admit that it was their job to get themselves off of the field and keep the other team out of our end-zone. Likewise, our special teams had yet another dismal game. Our team was fooled by a surprise onside kick and a fake punt, the latter being during the middle of the blowout which is quite irksome but not against the rules or anything.

This loss in no way diminishes the great season the Yellow Jackets had in 2008. I honestly expected Tech to go 6-6 mainly due to the introduction of the new coaching staff, new offense, and being the youngest team in the ACC. A 9-4 season with some great wins (especially to U[sic]GA) brought Tech some high-profile coverage of its season and games.

I intend to keep up with whatever news that comes out about Tech during spring practice like I did for last year. I am biased but I think there are some great things ahead for the GT football program in the years to come. I can’t wait to see what our guys can do after a Spring and Summer of maturing with this past season under their belts. It’s great to be a Tech fan.

Happy New Year!

Referee Hackett tackles Gamecock QB Garcia.

john — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:20:16 +0000

My brother-in-law forwarded this video to me. I could not believe what I was seeing and at first was trying to find evidence of this being one of those viral videos. No, apparently, this really happened during the college football game between University of South Carolina and Louisiana State University on October 18th, 2008. How crazy does this look?

Admittedly, I think some angles make it look worse than it is. For example, the camera angle actually on the field in slow-motion does undoubtedly make it look like the referee pushed himself toward Garcia. The normal TV camera doesn’t make it look as bad. In the end, I think it’s all about the referee’s position as an umpire. According to wikipedia:

The umpire (U) stands behind the defensive line and linebackers, observing the blocks by the offensive line and defenders trying to ward off those blocks — looking for holding or illegal blocks. Prior to the snap, he counts all offensive players. … As the umpire is situated where much of the play’s initial action occurs, he is considered by many to hold the most dangerous officiating position.

So according to that definition of an umpire, it looks like Hackett is out of position but on the other hand it could have been because he thought the play was developing to his left and stepped to the right and didn’t realize that Garcia would counter the run to his side. On that same token though, this is not the first time I’ve seen a run that was originally supposed to develop to one side and instead the running back or quarterback tries to make an adhoc play of its own. Anyway, I’m a huge football fan and it’s the first time I’ve seen this type of thing happening except for in this Buffalo Wild Wing commercial.

Georgia Tech lost today.

john — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:18:33 +0000

Don’t comment telling me I’m wrong because I am talking metaphorically and the title was for rhetorical purposes. In reality, Tech got the W today and are 5-1 overall now but it’s very difficult to consider today’s win a victory because it could have easily gone either way and came down to a barely tipped field goal that prevented the game from going into OT. Were we playing a team in the ACC? Nope. Tech played Gardner Webb, a Division I-AA team that our program scheduled because Army pulled out of a home-and-home contract last year.

If you are a Gardner Webb fan, I don’t mean to say that just because GW is a Division I-AA team that it has no credibility or chance to beat a I-A team (for example, Toledo beat Michigan today) but let’s not pretend that this is the first time you’ve read this game should have been an easy game for Tech. Because, it should have been. Even after reading somewhere that GW was a great rush-defense team, I admit that I didn’t think much of it and wouldn’t have been able to believe that they would be able to hold our rush-oriented offense to 79 yards on the ground.

Now for Tech fans, let’s not use the “but it’s our third-string QB” excuse because that doesn’t explain why we only had 79 yards rushing. That doesn’t explain why Calvin was sacked two times and he was the leading rusher at the end of the game with 35 yards rushing on 19 carries. I am going to be blunt here so be prepared for that: our offensive line just plain sucked. Coach Paul Johnson said in his radio show last week that they were working a lot on their punt-return team but did he let the offensive line take a week off or something? CPJ also said after last week after Duke’s game that the offensive line needed to play lower and launch off of the line of scrimmage… but did they instead lay down on the ground and play dead? I wasn’t able to watch the game since it wasn’t televised but I did listen to it live on radio and I just could not believe that our blocking was so bad that our running game couldn’t even muster 80 yards; don’t forget 35 yards came from Calvin who is more of a pocket-passing QB.

What’s even worse is that after reading this column from Terence Moore at the AJC, it seems as if 80% of our offense failed to show up for this game because aside from our non-existing offensive line, our wide receivers were running wrong routes. Seriously? Out of any of the games that the wideouts could be running the wrong routes, they do it on a day that Calvin finally starts a game. Calvin, who is so easy to root for because of he is so team-oriented and unselfish? Come on!

In my mind, Coach Paul Johnson and the Georgia Tech football team lost today. They are 4-2 in my book. We can say a win is a win all we want but we all know Tech coaches, players, students, and fans were disappointed by our lackluster offense today and know that our offense can do better than they did today. Tech didn’t take GW seriously today and it’s going to hurt the team’s credibility.

How about the glass half-full stuff? Our defense played decent which is better than piss poor. This can be used as a good learning experience for our young team so hopefully this game will make them stronger and more focused.

HDR anyone?

john — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:42:22 +0000

To the right is one of my first attempts at High-Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. It was easier than I expected so I would highly encourage other photography enthusiasts to give it a go. I set my alarm for 6:50AM because sunrise was supposed to be at around 6:57am. I woke up either by accident or because I received an email and my phone beeped. Either way, I just grabbed my camera and tripod and grabbed a couple dozen shots on this wooden walkway.

After the three exposures were HDRified, I made some minor edits using Photoshop like darkening the sky and upping the contrast and sharpness overall to give it a more dramatic look. I kind of wish there were more clouds in the sky, I think that would have looked spectacular.

Scrubs: You look so damn leathery!

john — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:42:42 +0000

Dr. Cox: Mr. Warner, do you see what you made me do? By once again choosing to spend all of your free time out on the surface of the Sun until melanoma has developed, you’ve forced me to pull the attending dermatologist away from his bacne seminar and validate his most ridiculous of career choices.

Dermatologist: Ehhhh!

Dr. Cox: Oh god.

Mr. Warner: I just want to look good.

Dr. Cox: You, my friend, look so damn leathery I’m honestly tempted to wrap you around a baseball, synch you up with a belt, and stick you under my mattress so that you’re good n’ broken in for the big game on Sunday. But, since I’m here to heal not judge, I’m gonna go ahead and write you a couple of prescriptions. You’ll find that this first one is for an extra large mallet to help ya pound some sense into yourself. The second one is for a big floppy hat that you’re now to wear every single time you leave the house. Have a great day, ya look like a purse!

Scrubs Quotes.

john — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 04:15:18 +0000

A couple of Scrubs quotes for your enjoyment.

Dr. Cox: (peptalk to new residents) Each and every one of you is going to kill a patient. At some point in your residency, you will screw up, they will die, and it will be burned in your conscience forever. Now take pee pants here. He just might go get himself a good clean kill this morning seeing as his patient, Ms. Samson, is in DKA and he hasn’t been tracking her phosphate level, her phosphate level, her phosphate level.

JD: Doug! Stop writing and go!

Dr. Cox: That young man has killed so many patients I’m starting to think he just might be a government operative. The point is, the harder you study, the longer you just might be able to hold off that first kill. Other then that, I guess cross your fingers and hope that the guy you murder is a jackass with no family. Great to see you kids. All the best.

And another…

JD: Ooh, Dr. Cox- can I ask you something?

Dr. Cox: The answer is yes, it was me who saw you doing leg lifts in the gym on that inflatable ball. Quite the display of girl power. Ab-so-lutely love the leg warmers.

JD: First of all, they were just big socks. Okay? And secondly, if you need to do some laundry, here’s the washboard (lifting up scrubs to show flat abs), riiiighht?

And another…

Dr. Kelso: That young man’s father is very important.

Dr. Cox: Don’t tell me, he donated a wing.

Dr. Kelso: He donated a wing, a thigh, and a breast.

JD: Sir…

Dr. Kelso: Yes, genius, in this metaphor the hospital is a chicken.

JD: Please sir, I totally get that. (Inner monologue: How can a hospital be a chicken?)

… yes, I’ve been watching reruns of Scrubs lately.

New Era of Tech Football.

john — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:29:40 +0000

I am very excited about the new era of Georgia Tech football that became official yesterday and started today. Before I continue, I wanted to add that Chan Gailey was a good coach and deserves a lot of respect for having upheld a program that has been seriously lacking the fuel that it needed from the administration, fans, students, boosters, alumni, and the staff. From the outside looking in, Chan looks like the guys whose job is to hold the chains wearing a GT cap; he looked bored to death and waiting for something better. Maybe he was but when most of the Tech players stood up for him after he was fired, I knew that what everyone sees in the sidelines was not the same Chan Gailey that his players and staff saw in the locker room. I did see some fire from him when a ref blew a call in our loss to U(sic)GA (yes, we would have lost regardless of that call) but it was too little and too late.

Ultimately, Coach Gailey wasn’t fired because he was a bad coach; I think he was fired because he rarely showed passion for his team. If he were being interviewed right after our 6th straight loss to our rival, he probably would have said something stoic like “our passes were being dropped, I did see some good things happening that we can expand on but no team is ever perfect”. Personally, if I were Dan Radakovich, 50% of me probably would have told him that he had next season to see improvement… not even significant improvement, just noticeable improvement… something more than what the fans have been enduring for so long because year after year we can’t help but have higher hopes for the next season. The other 50% wouldn’t have turned out any different than it turned out now.

Head Coaches get paid a lot for the chance of being criticized as the scapegoat when teams don’t progress and also paid for the chance to get shoved aside by interviewers chasing after an individual playmaker after winning a Championship game. Either way, Chan is now the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs and I think it’s a good fit for him as an offensive-minded football coach. While, I won’t be as big a fan to the Chiefs as I am to the Panthers, I know I will be tempted to check up on him just as I do with Calvin Johnson, Jarret Jack, and so many other former Tech atheletes that I have followed during and after my time in Atlanta.

With Paul Johnson coming in after turning around the football program at Navy, I am a very excited Tech fan looking forward to September to see what our new offense (and defense) will look like. One thing that I was impressed about our new Coach was the fact that he was disappointed with the players’ performance at the Humanitarian Bowl. Primarily because I was disappointed too and it’s great he didn’t play the disappointment off with just a hope of doing better next time. I feel like this will put the needed fire in our players, students, and fans.

Goodbye 2007.

john — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:10:27 +0000

Farewell, 2007. It was a good and honorable year. I hope everyone had a spectacular year as well in 2007. I am very much excited about 2008 although I don’t really know why. There were a lot of resolutions (and expectations) I made a year ago that I have yet to fulfill. Shamefully, I would have to admit that 90% of it was purely because I was being lazy and have not correctly prioritize everything that I wanted to accomplish. Briefly reflecting upon my previous year’s goals, it seems to me that there are three major reasons why I can’t seem to complete some of my goals:

Not making myself accountable
Too many segregated goals (ie. Seven Projects)
Lack of continuity

The first two reasons are pretty much self-explanatory. I’ll need to figure out a way to make myself accountable to failing to work on some of my goals somehow but the problem is that since these are personal goals, there are no negative consequences except for maybe personal shame. I could use some ideas on this one. Second reason is that maybe I put too many things on my plate and that just overwhelms me to the point where I don’t want to work on any of it. One way I can think to fix this is to prioritize my goals carefully and work on them bottom-up. The third reason may need some more elaboration. I currently have what I consider to be a good full-time job that I consider to be rewarding in a multitude of ways and also necessary. I also have a great hobby in photography that I delve into as much as possible but not really necessary but very fun and interesting. My goals are in between these two things and I consider it rather difficult to “shift gears” between each and keep the continuity of the things I am working on.

So my initial thoughts are NOT make the same mistake I did just last year by listing out all the things I want to work on but to just keep it simple and work on goals one at a time so that at the end of 2008, I can write a totally different type of blog post that will reflect back upon things that I was able to complete instead of focusing on the things that I wasn’t.

There, I am very much looking forward to 2008.

Perfect Patriots?

john — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:32:03 +0000

As many football fans may have heard by now, the New England Patriots have done the unthinkable. They have gone 16-0 in the regular season of the NFL, a perfect regular season and many are predicting that they will clinch their division title and then win the Super Bowl giving them an absolutely perfect season that only the ’72 Dolphins were able to accomplish in the history of the game. Tom Brady and Randy Moss have also set individual record performances; respectively, most touchdown passes and most touchdown receptions in the regular season.

Regardless, as a fan of the NFL and acknowledging the fact that the Patriots are a great football team, I will not be able to say that the Patriots were perfect the entire season. Whatever trophy or plaque this organization will hold at the end of this season, it will always have the infamous Spygate scandal in its back-story, shamefully tarnishing what could be turning out to be perfect. I feel like years or decades from now if/when another NFL team is able to have a perfect season, people will refer back to say “just like the 2007 Patriots except they weren’t involved in a scandal.” It’s a damn shame… but I guess that is what happens when you do stupid things.

With NCAA Football and NFL season coming to a close, I’m not going to have anything to watch Saturdays, Sundays, and also Monday nights. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to a great New Year.